Frozen Radiant loop

John G. Merritt

Hey Guys,

I have a frozen radiant loop under a patio.
The loop is for an Ice Melt system. (PEX) My boss wants to use an air compressor to attempt to blow it out. I thought a salt and water solution, pumped into the loop might work.
Problem was not enough Anti-Freeze.
Any other ideas?

John

Mike Kraft

Once upon a time................

we suffered a mighty brrrrrrrr........cold winter in the NE.Me tinks it twas 93.Anyway,much snow and - double digits below zero for weeks.For the NE it was cold.

I had many many freeze ups.Many were well lines......from the tank to the well casing.The thaw machine takes way to long to thaw poly pipe:)so I thought what to do.I pumped hot water from the water heater and shoved it through the 1"poly pipe using a 1/4" pex ice maker tubing.It worked marvelous.Dissconnect your loop from the manifold and try it.Maybe mix a glycol solution with hot water......shouldnt take too long.

Good Luck,

cheese

chris smith_2

defreeze

mike,
have used a rig very similar to that to thaw municipal water lines running from street to house thought i was pretty clever but you were a couple years ahead of me in 93

chris smith

paradise porter maine

Mike Kraft

Chris..........

necessity is the mother of invention;)

I talked to a guy who put a 110V element in a 5 gallon bucket .........plugged it in an added water.

cheese

kevin_5

Tarp and space heater?

If you could safely heat the slab from the topside, it might be the easiest. Here in Nebraska they use a contraption like a large meat smoker lid to thaw out the ground before they dig graves. Just blow the propane flame in all night and dig away. Careful though, one fella left his torpedo pointed at his chevy pickup in the garage, and returned to find the plastic grille dripping off the front bumper. Kevin

Rick Kelly

thawing solution

once had a frozen slab that couldn't be thawed from topside so I used 1/2" emt for retaining struts and laid a tempoary tubing array above the floor and tied it into an expanded manifold feeding the frozen floor. I laid down some rogid foam board on top and came back the next day to a fully flowing floor

Troy_3

Frozen line

The only job that has frozen on us was our shop. We started it up on a 20deg. day wasrunning for 2 hours before we left. sometime in the night the boiler couldn't keep up and everyloop froze. We used 3/4" pex on 12" centers with 500' loop lengths. I put air pressure on one side of the loop and fed a 3/8"od line from my waterheater down the other end of the loop. It would just run down the 3/8" line and melt the ice and free flow out of the 3/4" line. We kept feeding the 3/8" line down as it melted I pushed it in further. Believe me when you got to the end of the ice you knew it 'cause the water shot out being forced by the air on the other side. It took all day but after the first loop was thawed and heat was put in the slab the next loops came easier. Good luck.

hr

I'd try

from the thawing from the top. Can't imagine your ground is frozen to deep, yet!

Lay some pex or PAP on top and cover it with some Insultarp. In some areas you can rent concrete insulation blankets, used for pouring slabs in cold weather areas.

Connect it to the current heat source, if possible or maybe a LP fired outside boiler. Portable, trailer mounted boilers are rent-able in some areas also.

I heard a story from my former company where a homeowner thawed a drive way snow melt with garden hose coupled together and piped, and circulated through a hot water!
Covered it with insulation blankets and let it run .


Thaw time will depend on how long it has been frozen. If the whole loop length is frozen solid... cross your fingers, you may have a surprise waiting for you when she thaws

hot rod

To Learn More About This Contractor, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Contractor"